10 best football terrace chants

Find out who came up with the funniest and wittiest chants among football fans

Watching any sport live is a unique experience. The excitement, bonhomie and raucous atmosphere are infectious enough for a casual observer to get caught up in. But what sets football apart is the quick-witted terrace chants that fans come up with. Usually belted out to the tune of popular or folk songs, some fans excel at making up the best chants that are then very quickly picked up by everyone around them.

Football fans, especially British are always the first to express their concerns and views through chants and rhymes during games. While some are quickly forgotten, some have stood the test of time because of their inherent humour. Many of them have even been adopted by other clubs and tailored to their needs.

Here’s a look at some of the best terrace chants in recent history.

#10 Seven Nation Army

Alessandro del Piero led fans in Rome in the singing of ‘Seven Nation Army’ after their World Cup victory in 2006

When Jack White of the White Stripes came up with a seven-note riff for their most iconic song ‘Seven Nation Army’, little did he know it would be transformed into one of the most oft-chanted tunes inside a football stadium. It may be a common chant inside Bayern Munich’s Allianz Arena nowadays, but it was the Belgian Club Brugge who first popularised the song.

The Blue Army of Brugge heard it in a pub in Milan and after their victory, they adopted it as their anthem. The song then passed on to AS Roma and became Italy’s unofficial song for the 2006 World Cup. By the time Euro 2012 came around it was the tournament’s official goal song.

Jack White claimed that the song’s popularity at live sporting events was a huge honour for him and said, "I love that most people who are chanting it have no idea where it came from. That's folk music."